Some of the politically motivated organizations who are frequently found trying to refute widely accepted scientific theories are identified in "Merchants of Doubt". One of the most prominent is the Heartland Institute. It has the impressive record of using all its might to deny the dangers of second hand smoke, among other things. Unsurprisingly, given it's free market MO, it also denies anthropogenic climate change and uses it might to try and cast doubt on this.
If you start with the premise that regulation by governments is wrong then you may be predisposed to overlook evidence that certain activities, promoted in our free market, are actually harmful. And of course you will be set on a path of denying that one of the obvious and effective ways to curtail the harm is through regulation.
After reading about The Heartland Institute, in The Merchants of Doubt, I was interested to come across this billboard that was recently put but by The Heartland Institute.
Here is a snippet from the Heartland Institute's web site that was issued with the unveiling of the billboard on 3rd May.
“The most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists,” said Heartland’s president, Joseph Bast. “They are Charles Manson, a mass murderer; Fidel Castro, a tyrant; and Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. Global warming alarmists include Osama bin Laden and James J. Lee (who took hostages inside the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in 2010). http://heartland.org/press-releases/2012/05/03/do-you-still-believe-global-warming-billboards-hit-chicagoUmm, what??
I have come across a lot of advocates of global warming in recent years; in the media, in books and on-line. And I can honestly say that Manson, Castro, Kaczynski, bin Laden and Lee have never been prominent, or even referred to!
The public backlash to this offensive billboard caused them to pull the billboard after only 24 hours. They issued a statement that you can read here on their website. Did they apologise for their shocking tactics? Read for yourself:
"We do not apologize for running the ad, and we will continue to experiment with ways to communicate the ‘realist’ message on the climate.”I like this video response by Peter Sinclair, to Bast's murderers, tyrants and madmen claim.
Peter Sinclair’s monthly Yale Forum video uses historical footage to debunk an assertion that the most well-known climate change ‘advocates’ are … ‘murderers, tyrants, and madmen.’ http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2012/05/margaret-thatcher-others-neither-murderers-tyrants-nor-madmen/
Some interesting footage from the 80's and 90's. You know, around the time that that anthropogenic climate change became almost universally* accepted amongst climate scientists, despite what the mainstream media, climate damaging industry and right wing capitalists would have you believe.
* Some sources re: Scientific Consensus on Anthropogenic Climate Change
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1686.full
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Scientific_consensus
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/mains2-4.html
